My Dear India: 11 Facts About Indian Currency - Bet You Don't Know At Least 5 Of Them

Here are some facts about Indian currency that you probably don't know. In fact, we can bet you don't know at least half of these, if not more.

1. Big Bribe Notes Discontinued. Thank God!

As we all know that Rs.1000/- is largest/ biggest denomination of Indian currency today today, but before independence — 10,000 and 5000 rupees currency notes existed. RBI demonetized all such notes in 1938, and reissued them in 1954 and once again demonetized in 1978.

2. More Than What Meets The Eye

I think you noticed year of issue on a mint, but have you ever noticed the different symbols below the year. These symbols are actually specifying where the originated. The following insets have been assumed and be allotted…

Noida – have a dot
Mumbai – have a diamond
Hyderabad – have a star
Kolkata – Nothing beneath the year

3. Two Currencies, One Nation!

At one point there were two currencies operating in India. It was Hyderabadi Rupee from 1918 to 1959. It coexisted with Indian rupee from 1950

4. Two Nations, One Currency!!!

When Pakistan was in its infancy after India-Pak separation in 1947, they used Indian currency with "Pakistan" stamped on it for the first few months till there was enough circulation of Pakistani notes.

5. WW II Coin Crisis

The shortage of metal during World War II necessitated 36 Princely States mostly in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sind, Baluchistan and central provinces to issue paper tokens instead of coins, some with the value of One Pice or 1/192nd of a Rupee.

6. How Do You Write ₹ In MS Word ???

New Rupee Symbol of India - How to use in Computers? Download the font. -> ”Rupee_Foradia.ttf” Save it to fonts folder of your PC: Location : C:/Windows/Fonts and then go to the C:/Windows/Fonts location and install (double click) Open your word processor and select the “Rupee_forindian”. Just select “Rupee” font from the drop down list of your fonts in your application and press the key just above your tab button. It will display the new Rupee symbol of India.

7. The Very First Rupaiya. How Our Money Has De-evaluated!

The First One Rupee Notes were issued on 30th November, 1917 bearing photo of King George V. These were issued in a form of unstapled packet of 25 notes, printed on White hand-made moulded paper and signed by any of the 3 signatories who were M. M. S. Gubbay, A. C. Mc Watters & H. Denning.

8. Do You Know How The Re 1 Note Is Unique Amongst All Others?

A major difference between the one rupee note and other notes are that all RBI notes have the statement “I promise to pay the bearer a sum of xxx rupees” but one rupee note does not have this statement.

Unlike all other currency notes that have ‘Bhartiya Reserve Bank’ and ‘Reserve Bank of India’ printed on them, One Rupee note will have ‘Bharat Sarkar’ on its masthead, with ‘Government of India’ printed below that.

9. The Story Behind The Smiling Mahatma

We can see in all Indian currencies, Gandhiji’s facial image being printed. The smiling Gandhiji is very popular among the countrymen. Many of us think that image is a drawn picture. But, in fact it was a photo shot and picturised in 1946 by an unknown photographer. The original photo is displayed here. In the original photo Gandhiji smiles to some person nearby. That hollow smile picture had been developed into a mirror image and then the same has been imaged in the Indian Rupee currencies.

10. Coins Were Minted In Other Countries When Required

Because of the increasing demand for coins, the Indian government was forced to mint coins in foreign countries at various points in the country's history.

Foreign Mint Marks:

Pretoria - diamond mark under the date 1943.

Seoul - a five pointed star under the date of the coin but exactly below the first or Last Digits of dates 1985 and 1997.

Birmingham (Royal Mint, UK) - small dot under the date of the coin but exactly below the first digit of date 1985.
Heaton Press - Ornamental/decorated letter "H" under the last digit of the date 1985.